The South London Waste Partnership (SLWP) has written to Viridor expressing concern over emissions exceedances from its Beddington Energy Recovery Facility (ERF). According to the letter, the plant exceeded its emissions targets six times between May and June 2022 following a twelve-month period of no exceedances.
The partnership, consisting of Croydon, Kingston, Merton and Sutton, has requested the waste company provide a ‘Rectification Plan’ detailing how the plant will be brought back to 100 per cent compliance.
Each year, 200,000 tonnes of residual waste is collected from the South London boroughs and taken to the Beddington ERF to be treated. Procured energy is then generated and fed to the National Grid, powering around 57,000 homes.
Emission limits for the plant are set by the Environment Agency (EA), and are monitored by Viridor. Samples are taken every ten seconds, which are then used to calculate ten minute, thirty minute, and daily averages. Any exceedance of set limits must be reported to the EA within 24 hours, who then investigate and award ‘Compliance Assessment Scores’.
Andrea Keys, Partnership Director for the South London Waste Partnership, said: “During May and June 2022, there were a total of six exceedances of the emissions limits at the Beddington ERF, five of which were breaches of the EA permit. This is disappointing as the facility had previously gone 12 months without a single breach of the permit.
“We have written to Viridor to make it clear that contractual penalties will be applied for each of the breaches and we have formally requested a plan from Viridor that sets out what they are going to do to ensure environmental performance is improved. From the monthly reports (that Viridor publishes online) it would seem that many of the exceedances have been caused by pressurised gas bottles going through the treatment process, so this is an issue we are particularly keen to explore further.
“On the whole, the Beddington ERF continues to perform well. Even in the two months that we have raised concerns about (May and June 2022), compliance remained high. But the SLWP boroughs expect 100 per cent compliance with the EA permit 100 per cent of the time, and will use all of the mechanisms available to us in our contract with Viridor to ensure those high standards are met.”
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